Popular Protestant platitudes include variations of “the newly saved soul” announcing: “I was born and raised Catholic. The priest told us that if we ever read The Bible we would die and be sent straight to hell. When I was a Catholic, we worshiped Mary. We were told to bow down before statues of Saints and worship them, too! ”
The “newly saved soul” then goes on to tell us: “Then, I read The Bible. Suddenly, I saw the truth! The Catholic Church was invented by Masons when Constantine was King of Rome! The Catholic Church is actually Babylon and believes in human sacrifice, abortion, and every other sin.”
Then, “the newly saved soul” feels compelled to tell us how they keep on being really holy. Some of them say: “Now, I am free to read The Bible! I go to Pastor Bob’s Church of The Big Tent. There, we talk about how good the Bible is and how bad The Catholic Church is to keep us from it.”
Other “newly saved souls” prefer “home churches”. “We gather together for ‘Bible Study’. We read The Bible! We study The Bible! We really read and we really study The Bible! Now, I am finally a Christian. We are taking up a collection to build our own building so Pastor Ralph can bring more souls to Jesus!”
A “the newly saved soul” avoids Bible passages like “Verily, verily I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
Should such a passage come up for consideration, “the newly saved soul” doesn’t need Jesus. He or she knows: “Listen, we do not need “the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” from Jesus. We have our own keys!
